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Thursday, 8 August 2013

LITERATURE REVIEW FOR NEW MEDIA ART PRACTICE IN MALAYSIA

I'm currently struggling to finish a commissioned essay on

new media art in Malaysia. In the course of finishing it,

especially in regards to textual materials for

the study or research on contemporary art practice in

Malaysia, I can't help but to stumble upon phrases such as

'not enough materials to refer to', 'lack of substantial

materials', 'lack of critical writings/analysis', 'absence

of criticism', so on and so forth. Perhaps, these phrases

are partly true, yet they are partly questionable too.

Sometimes, I wonder if these generic and sweeping phrases

came out of extensive period of reSEARCHing based on an

empirical study, or just a lazy assumption from in front of

a laptop on an office desk.

After about 20 plus year of dwelling in the field of art, I

have discovered a diverse range of textual materials that

can be utilized, including in this case, for the study of

new media art in Malaysia (I use the term E-art). Ya, not

all fall within what can be narrowly defined as 'academic

research' (according to scientific paradigm most of the

time), yet, all are pertinent for many different reasons.

The following is an excerpt from a draft summary of

literature review for the commissioned essay. It might be

handy for students who are interested in researching about

electronic and new media art in Malaysia.

Perhaps, it can be handy for me too, especially in

soliciting constructive comments to further improve it from

anybody out there.

Summary of Literature Review

Other than relying on various
forms of primary data including participative observation and direct
engagements, this study and essay also rely largely on textual materials from
local scholars and writers. Their writings are highly instrumental for several
different reasons and purposes, and have been referred and quoted in providing
contexts, describing and interpreting case examples, instigating questions,
probing into themes and issues, sparking and exploring different perspectives,
supporting arguments, and most
importantly, shifting paradigm.

Seminal writings by the early
generations of writers such as Syed Ahmad Jamal, T.K. Sabapathy, Redza
Piyadasa, Krishen Jit, Sulaiman Esa and Zainol Abidin Ahmad Sharif are critical
in providing contextual grounding for this study and essay.

Their writings, especially in chronicling
the history of modern art in Malaysia, are important pre-requisites for this
study and essay, without which, the idea and notion of ‘shifting-return paradigm’
and ‘contemporary art’ would be meaningless. Seminal works such as Vision and Idea (1994) and Rupa Malaysia (1999) are two important
references for this study and essay. In a way, they have performed as the
master-narrative of modern art history in Malaysia, other than laying the
foundation and establishing a paradigm for modern art in Malaysia to be further
developed (and shifted!).

Syed Ahmad Jamal’s Rupa & Jiwa (Form & Soul) (1978),
Sulaiman Esa’s The Reflowering of the Islamic Spirit in the
Contemporary Malaysian Artand Ruzaika Omar
Basaree’s Kesenian Islam – Suatu Perspektif Malaysia(Islamic Art, A Malaysian
Perspective) (1995) serve as important references in
probing into early examples of ‘localization’, ‘decolonization’ and for some
‘indigenization’ of modern art in Malaysia. Their writings can also be taken as
a negation of Western historical and aesthetic tradition, representing Malaysia’s
version of post-colonial reflex, framed within the context of the political,
social and cultural economy of nationalism, centred on the Malay-Islamic tradition.

The other version of such
negation, especially in regards to the notion of ‘otherness’, is Piyadasa’s
critic of what he termed as ‘Malay-Islamic proclivity’ is his Rupa Malaysia. In this essay, Piyadasa
also highlights several key artists and artworks that may not easily and
conveniently fall within the State-defined construct of national identity and
culture. Piyadasa himself produced several works that questioned the fixed
notion of identity and culture. Other counterpoints are Zainal Abidin Ahmad
Sharif’s Towards Alter-Native Vision: The Idea of
Malaysian Art Since 1980 (1994) and T.K Sabapathy’s Merdeka Makes Art or Does It? (1994). Perhaps the
most controversial example of negation of Western aesthetic, beyond nationalism
and ethnic preoccupation would be Towards
A Mystical Reality by Sulaiman Esa and Redza Piyadasa himself.

Even though these writings and
their contents may have been framed within a post-colonial discourse, they can
also be ‘re-visited’ as early preludes to critical regionalism and post-traditional
theory.

To counter-balance and
triangulate, writings by Jolly Koh, Suhaimi Mohd Noor and Ooi Kok Chuen have
also been referred to. Jolly Koh’s Some Misconceptions in Art
Writing in Malaysia refutes the writings of
Piyadasa and Sabapathy on Malaysian abstract expressionism and the authenticity
or originality of ‘Malaysian modern art’ itself; while Suhaimi extends the
historical root of modernism in Malaysia (or Malaya) by including ‘modern’
illustrations and publications by local artists and writers during the colonial
period. Ooi Kok Chuen on the other hand, extends (or perhaps end) the ‘history’
of Malaysian modern art with the inclusion of the ‘syiok of the new’ as a pun on the ‘shock of
the new’ through his essay, A
Comprehensive History of Malaysian Art. In extending the historical ‘root’
or ‘origin’ and the ‘tail-end’ of modern art history in Malaysia, and in
questioning a part of its construction, these writers have provided critical forms
of alternative ‘shifting’ forces within the dominant discourse of modern art in
Malaysia. Another important source is Australian-based
Michelle Antoinette’s, Different Visions:
Contemporary Malaysian Art and Exhibition in the 1990s and Beyond (2003).
Her essay provides a much-needed survey on several major shifts that have taken
place in the contemporary art practice in Malaysia after 1990.

Perhaps, the most crucial
‘shifting-return force’ can be traced in the writings of Ismail Zain. In fact,
most of the theoretical references related to E-art come from the writings of
Ismail Zain, supported by Redza Piyadasa and Krishen Jit, especially through Digital Collage(DC)(1988) and Ismail Zain Retrospective (IZR)(1995). Both perform
as key theoretical references for this study and essay.

In reviewing DC, it is quite apparent
that Piyadasa plays a complimentary supporting role to Ismail Zain’s
intellectual probing. Ismail Zain’s seminal Ucapan
Nada Ideaand Masa Depan Tradisi: Dikhususkan Kepada Pengalaman Kuno di Malaysiacan be
taken as two of the most important and early textual sources in providing a
conceptual grounding and theoretical framework for E-art, especially in regards
to technology.

Central to Ismail’s writings and
works are the linguistic and semiological dimensions of visual culture, both
from structuralist and post-structuralist positions. They epitomize the
shifting paradigm of nationalism to critical regionalism, of modern to
post-modern, even post-traditional. Ismail Zain’s theoretical scope is
wide-ranging, often placing the practice of contemporary art within the
discourse of language, media, communication and cultural anthropology. His
proposition of Frampton’s ‘Critical Regionalism’ as a response to the
imperatives of information age has been referred to by several writers,
including for this study and essay.

A much more focused body of
reference on E-art in Malaysia comes from writings by Niranjan Rajah and Hasnul
J Saidon (the author), both collectively and individually. In fact, this study
and essay is a delayed extension and up-dated version of their previous survey
on E-art, mainly the 1st.
Electronic Art Show (1997) and E-art
ASEAN Online (2000).

Niranjan Rajah is one of the forerunners
of internet and new media art in Malaysia and South East Asia. He has also
written, presented and published numerous writings related to E-art in seminars
and conferences, mostly outside Malaysia (see bibliography for his list of
publication).

His body of writings can be
summarized as highly theoretical and philosophical, mostly focusing on the
internet and relying then on a small pool of concrete evidences, mostly from
his own works, other artists’ and even his students’ to articulate his points.
His proposition on post-traditional theory is compelling and pertinent,
especially in regards to the practice of E-art in Malaysia and South East Asia.

In rertrospect, writings by
Niranjan Rajah and Hasnul J Saidon are perhaps known for their articulation on
the practice of E-art in Malaysia vis-à-vis regional and international arena, including
language of new media, geo-political forces and transnational power structure
that underline the practice of E-art regionally and internationally. Their body
of research and writings have also been wide ranging. Yet, through their
individual articulations of E-art practice in Malaysia, several recurrent
themes, frameworks and underlying concepts can be ascertained. Amongst them
include paradigmatic shift, E-art and its fusion with information system,
cybernetic theory, mind studies, consciousness and quantum physic; trans-disciplinary
approach towards contemporary art especially the convergence of art and science;
and shared principles between E-art paradigm with many forms of Eastern
cosmology and Islamic arts.These themes
are explained through myriads of case examples that include their own artworks
as well as by other local artists, E-art exhibitions and events. Central to
their writings have always been the need to address, repond, contextualize, understand,
articulate and pro-actively react to the imperatives of profound changes or
transformation, in short, ‘paradigm shift’, brought about by information
technology, according to local and regional cultural terms.

Other
critical sources, especially in regards to ‘shifts’

or for some, ‘subversions’
within the social and political forces in Malaysia, can be
traced from the writings works and discourses surrounding the works of Ray
Langenbach and Wong Hoy Cheong, especially during the 1990s. Their pioneering
works, especially their published conversation, provide ample examples for
critical articulation of contemporary art as a site for shifting paradigm, discussed
within the frameworks of social and political sciences, cultural studies and
critical theories. In fact, one of Wong Cheong’s solo exhibitions is titled Shifts (2008), perhaps to position him
as an epitome of shifting paradigm within the context of contemporary art
practice in Malaysia and beyond. Furthermore, Ray Langenbach himself, is also
critical to what he perceives as Niranjan’s and Hasnul’s “missionary desire to
romanticize or redeem digital communication” that mimicked “Mahathir Mohammed’s
strategy of appropriating the rhetoric of the local centre-left to criticize
the very global capital markets to which he was nevertheless committed”(Sitharan:
2008, p46). Both are also critical of the notion of ‘Asian values’ and indiginization
of the local arts, that can easily and conveniently be exploited as an extension
of State-sponsored framing of national identity at the expanse of more inclusive
social and cultural initiatives. The study of E-art in Malaysia would be
incomplete without referring to their works and writings, including writings by
both local and international writers on Wong Hoy Cheong’s diverse and
multi-dimensional artworks.

Baharudin Mohd Arus, known also for
his early video installation work done under the supervision of Ray Langenbach
during his study at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in the early 1990s in Penang,
has written on the convergence between art and technology in the early 1990s.
His writings are complimented by the writings of Zanita Anwar. Three writings
by Zanita Anwar are used by this study and essay, mostly for extracting several
shifting modes in contemporary art practices by young artists through her
review of the local Young Contemporaries
Competition (1999); underlining key outcomes from the convergence of art
and science in ALAMI (1999); and
articulating ICT as a form of cognitive tides, based on the as ebs and flow of
information or data that can be stored, retrieved and even erased in Flow/Arus(with Wayne Tunniclife)(2000).
Her articulation, especially on the cognitive tides, relates to the
epistimilogical shift-return and the deployment of a quantum model in this
study and essay. In connoting the notion of information storage, retrieval and
deletion to implantation and erosion of cultural memories, she also echoes the
spirit of critical regionalism and hints on the need for a post-traditional
theorization in facing the imperatives of ICT.

Writings by Beverly Yong and
Adeline Ooi, especially their overview of video art in Malaysia, provide a
complimentary, if not updated reading for the previous study on similar subject
by Niranjan and Hasnul. Both frame the video art practice as an articulation of
alternative visual language and exploration of newly emerging locations and
spaces for contending discourses. Such framing appears to echo Ismail Zain’s
call to look into the ‘conceptual and linguistic efficacy’ within the local responses to
video technology. Beverly and Adeline also write about
Wong Hoy Cheong, along with other writers such as Goh Beng Lan, Camren Nge and
Shabbir Hussain Mustaffa. Beverly co-edited Between
Generations (2007) with Hasnul J Saidon, surveying and comparing two
generations of Malaysian artists, whilst discussing the different contexts and
strategies between the two. Recently, Beverly co-edited another milestone
publication entitled Narratives of
Malaysian Art with Nur Hanim Khairuddin, as a part of a planned four
volumes publication that will comprehensively cover various dimensions of
Malaysian art practices. They have also worked together, with several other
writers, in surveying several emerging practices in Malaysia.

Supplementing the materials from
Beverly and Adeline are writings by Tengku Sabri Tengku Ibrahim, Nasir
Baharuddin and Badrolhisham Mohd Tahir. Tengku Sabri or TSabri is known mostly
for his mapping of modern and contemporary art in Malaysia that he refers to as
Seni Rupa Malaysia or in short ‘Serum’. Badrol’s and Nasir’s writings are more
theoretical, yet are highly pertinent in regards to the need for a cognitive shift
within the practice and discourse of contemporary art in Malaysia. In addition,
Nasir’s own creative works deploy a linguistic approach to visual culture,
whilst revisiting critical theories through Eastern spiritual and metaphysical
lenses. In fact, Nasir’s conceptual
stance is echoed by this study and essay. Except for Badrol, both TSabri and
Nasir are currently university-based researchers, writers and artists.

Chai Chang Hwang, Majidi Amir, Nur
Hanim Khairuddin, Sareena Abdullah, Safrizal Shahir, Sharon Chin, Simon Soon,
Tan Sei Hon and Yap Sau Bin, represent the younger generation of writers who
have contributed significantly to the body of literature on current
contemporary art practices in Malaysia, especially after 2000. As contemporary
chroniclers, the range of their coverage corresponds to different trajectories
of contemporary art practices in Malaysia today. Their writings are not anymore
confined by modernist and nationalistic frameworks of the previous generation.
Theirs are less concern with the ‘master-narrative’ of Malaysian modern art
history, reflecting a shifting contextual grounding for contemporary art
discourse and practice in Malaysia.

Nur Hanim’s writings are referred
to for their articulations on shifting paradigm within several platforms,
namely curatorial practice by a new generation of ‘multi-faceted’ curators in
Malaysia; alternative stances taken by a network of artists, collective, groups
and communities; and new artistic
strategies taken by young artists today. Her review of Hasnul J Saidon’s The Smilling Van Gogh and Gauguin (1997)(2010)
provides a valuable example of the application of critical theories in the
analysis and criticism of a single E-art work. Her own art magazine, sentAp! provides a fertile platform for
many writings by other contemporary writers, some of which are also referred to
by this study and essay.

On the other hand, Majidi Amir, Yap
Sau Bin, Tan Sei Hon, Simon Soon and Sharon Chin, despite their limited writing
output, provide valuable insights to several alternative, obscured and less
visible, yet emerging sides of contemporary art practice in Malaysia. Majidi Amir for example, has even organized
and curated several projects and exhibitions that feature E-art works.
Complimenting them are writings by Sareena Abdullah and Safrizal Shahir, both currently
based in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), a local public university in the
northern state of Penang, Malaysia. Sareena’s work is crucial in her explication
of post-modernism in Malaysia, especially her thesis on the rise of the
middle-class Malay and the corresponding effect in the shifting attitude
amongst younger artists. Safrizal’s writings are critical in providing an
appropriate theoretical framework for the discourse of contemporary art in Malaysia,
echoing the need for critical regionalism and post-traditional theory in theorizing
modern and contemporary art practices in Malaysia.

Roopesh Sitharan, Lim Kok Yong, Wan
Jamarul Imran, Khariul Aidil Azlin, Hasnizam Wahid and Tengku Azhari represent a group of writers
whose writings are rather obscured or less visible, perhaps due to their
academic and specialized leaning towards E-art and new media technology. All
are based in universities, local and overseas. Yet, their writings, academic or
non-academic, are instrumental in providing insights for the study of E-art in
Malaysia and beyond.

Roopesh’s writing in Relocations: The Electronic Art of Hasnul J
Saidon & Niranjan Rajah(2008) for example, provide an in-depth review
on the works of Niranjan Rajah and Hasnul J Saidon. His theoretical probings especially
through post-colonial framing, are highly instrumental. His epistimilogical argument
on the fluctuating and fluid nature of new media technology through his recent
presentation The Doing of Media (2013) is
also helpful for this study and essay. He also writes for his own solo show Fermentations (2010), whilst providing contextualization
of his repertoire of video and interactive art.

Khairul’s proposition of ‘hybridity’ as the
converging agent for both design and fine art practices is also pertinent, as
far as the shift from disciplinary to transdisciplinary approach in creative
practice is concerned. Hasnizam Wahid and Tengku Azhari write about
electro-acoustic and video technology respectively. Hasnizam has been writing
and presenting papers on electro-acoustic composition mostly outside Malaysia,
using his own technical research materials as case examples. Lim Kok Yong, on
the other hand, writes about his own interactive works, in a very probing and
existentialist approach.

Complimenting the the
above-mentioned materials are writings by Faizal Sidek, Arham Azmi, Fuad Ariff
and Tan Nan See, perhaps to give a broad overview or picture of different
trajectories within the contemporary art practice in Malaysia, especially those
driven by young artists.

A surprise yet pleasant addition
to the existing body of literature useful for the study of E-art in Malaysia is
Ismail Abdullah’s Seni Budaya Media dan Konflik
Jati Diri (Art, Culture, Media and Identity
Conflict) (2009). In this book, he speaks about cyber-culture and its influence
in creating a new cultural environment dictated by automation and machine. He
argues on how technology has become a product of siginification and machine protocol.
He explicates new media as a symbol of artistic modernization and trans-avant
garde exploitation of multiple texts and sub-texts. He explains the impact of
artist’s use of electronic eyes through digital camera lenses, LCD, CCD, CMOS and
many other sensor technologies. One important point he has made, that should be
taken into consideration as far as the history of media art is concerned, is
the role of photography and photographers as the early preludes of E-art and
new media art in Malaysia. Names such as Ahlmarhum Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin
Shah, H.S. Lim, Eric Peres, Shamsul Kamal, S.Y Yeong, Ibrahim Ismail, Yusoff
Osman, Raja Zahabuddin Raja Yaacob, Ismail Abdullah (himself) and Soraya Yusof
Talismail Ibrahim should be taken into account in surveying media art in
Malaysia. The use of photography technology by prominent Malaysian artists such
as Ibrahim Hussein, Redza Piyadasa Nirmala Shanmugalingam, Ismail Zain, Wong
Hoy Cheong and Liew Kungyu for him, are also important factors and sites to
articulate the role of media technology in shifting certain ways of approaching
modern and contemporary art practice in Malaysia.

In supplementing the textual materials,
this study and essay have also been greatly assisted by a very rare
institutional collection of video art at the Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah
(MGTF) Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang.

PORTFOLIO & CV/RESUME

BIODATA

Associate Professor of electronic and new media arts, transmedia explorer and jolly good bundles of energy in myriads of continuously emerging positive frequencies. A stubborn idealist, persistent gardener of fine heart and mindfull neural innernet through his Kebun Jiwa Halus. Love and happy to connect with likewise frequencies within and across the vast transhuman universal consciousness. He feels that humanity as a form of neural network is currently experiencing a toxic discharge of healing crisis, a prelude for post info-age global awakening and return to quantum Oneness. He is currenty mastering the zen of doing no-thing, whilst enjoying the bliss of being and living in the moment of now and every now.

BAYANG PANJANG (LONG SHADOW)

The youngest son of Saidon Pandak Noh and Jamaliah Noordin, Hasnul received his initial Diploma in Art & Design (Fine Art) from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in 1988, followed by a BFA in Painting from Southern Illinois University USA in 1991 and an MFA in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA in 1993.

Throughout his creative practice, Hasnul has been engaged in various states of trans-disciplinary and multi-dimensional being. Amongst them include working in painting, drawing, installation, digital print, video and new media art, exhibition design, stage design, graphic and communication design. Known as one of the early proponents of electronic, video and new media art in Malaysia and South East Asia, Hasnul has also participated in many international and local exhibitions and screenings, including for example, the 2nd. Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane Australia. His works have been exhibited and screened in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Hawaii, Republic of Cezch, Denmark, Spain, Sweeden, Canada and the United States of America.

Hasnul's key academic contribution centered around devising and teaching courses that merge creative practice, new media technology with critical theories and cultural studies such as media & process, expanded media, electronic art, advanced electronic art, new media theory and criticism, history of new media, digital design, cross-cultural design and experimental video at several key institutions of higher learning in Malaysia which include UiTM, UNIMAS, Cenfad and USM. Hasnul had also taught drawing and painting at these institutions.

Hasnul's intellectual and academic contributions can be traced through his appointment as the Head of Fine Art Program (1997-1998) and Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts, UNIMAS (1999-2000); Head of Design & New Media department at Cenfad (2000-2001); Chairman of Design Department (2003-2004), Deputy Dean of Arts & Cultural Development (2004-2005) at the School of the Arts, USM ; Director of Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah (MGTF, Tuanku Fauziah Museum & Gallery) USM (2005-2012). He was also the Vice-President of UMnet interim committee (University Museum Network Southeast Asia) (2010-1011), board member of the Penang State Museum & Gallery (2006-2012), a member of the National Visual Art Development Board (2012-2013) and a panel member of the National Heritage Objects (Fine Art) (2010-2012).

He has a vast practical and hands-on experience in visual art education and curriculum development as implied by his appointment as the chairman of curriculum design development committees for degree programs in Integrated Arts at UNIMAS (1997) and New Media Design & Technology at USM (2004), advisory panel, program and course evaluator for proposed Diploma in Animation at ASWARA (2011), degree program in Visual Art Technology at UMS (2012) , key courses in Creative Technology & Heritage Program UMK (2011) and UPSI (2004), external examiner for undergraduate projects and graduate theses for UM, UNIMAS and UMS (since 2006) and curriculum development panel member for Fine Art Program, UNIMAS (1994-1998), New Media Design, Cenfad (2000), Visual Art Technology Program, UMS (2004), and Fine art Program, ASWARA(2006). Hasnul had also been invited several times as a visiting lecturer in Media & Process and Expanded Media at UNIMAS. These programs have churned out new generations of lecturers, researchers, art administrators, curators, designers, writers and visual artists who are playing critical roles in their respective field of work. In fact, three of the graduates from UNIMAS have become heads of department at three major universities in Malaysia.

Hasnul's services in the field of creative practice and visual art are attested by his appointment as the Director and Chairman of Sparkles in Penang for 1MCAT (1 Malaysia Contemporary Art Tourism) 2010, Insights Penang for 1MCAT 2011 and reGENEration Penang 1MCAT 2012. He has also been sought after for his advise, consultation and expertise on many different dimensions of creative practice and visual art in Malaysia by individuals, schools, organizations, private and government institutions. He has also contributed significantly in the success of several visual artists in Malaysia through his curatorial works and writings.

Hasnul has written and edited several books and numerous articles on different aspects of contemporary art practice in Malaysia. His research interests include electronic, video and new media art practice in Malaysia, trans-disciplinary practice and the convergence of the arts and sciences, creativity and spirituality, curatorial paradigm, exhibition design and technology, audience research, collection management, museum and gallery transformation. In 2003, he was awarded a researcher in residence grant by the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, to study new media art practice in Japan. Hasnul has also been invited as a lead researcher, guest writer and curator for several exhibition projects by the National Visual Art Gallery of Malaysia as well as numerous other public and private galleries. He had presented his papers in many countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, the Philippines, Japan and China.

From 2005 until 2012, Hasnul expanded his frequencies into the domain of obscured dwellers in the vicinity of MGTF USM, Penang, under the pretext of his position then as the Director of the Museum. For seven years, MGTF USM was his creative playground, experimental site, research lab and data repository for a sustainable museum & gallery transformation.

Hasnul’s favorite creative interference is performing his own song and composition in small-scale concerts to keep his romantic side alive and healthy. When life is more forgiving, Hasnul can be seen tending his garden or decorating his home. He is also a full-time husband, blessed with a faithful wife and three beautiful princesses.

When his quantum fluctuations are silenced, Hasnul likes to reflects upon the fact that his creative practice had at times saved him from his own self, his fluctuating temperament, lousy self financial management and unpredictable compulsion.